The wisdom of Ayn Rand

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed. -Ayn Rand

Remind you of anybody...

Roy Again

"I Approve this Message"

Roy is supposed to be in Phoenix on the 2nd. I might have to go see him.

I really want to figure out these chords...

It's not YOUR money - It's the Democrats

So... The Democrats are no longer content with destroying what's left of the economy with their profligate tax and spend ways. No. Now they have decided that they want to outlaw 401K retirement plans and force you to pay an additional 5 percent of your wages into a plan that purchases Government Bonds earning 3%.

Best part yet, this program would be run by the same goons who manage the giant Ponzi scheme known as "Social Security".

So let's see here.

Destroys Savings - Check
Confiscates Wealth - Check
Increases Taxes (On almost everyone) - Check

Stalin would be proud of these guys.

Linky

Sometimes The Libs Get one Right

Roy Zimmerman is an unrepentant Libereral.
He is also one heck of a singer-songwriter/folksinger.

Much like the blind pig who nonetheless finds an acorn now and again, the Libs do get some things right.

here's Roy singing his "America"

From Mostly Cajun via theguncounter.com forum

I was talking to a friend ’s little girl, and she said she wanted to be President some day.

Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, “If you were to be the President, what is the first thing you would do?”

She replied, “I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.” “Wow - what a worthy goal.” I told her, “You don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow, pull weeds, and sweep my sidewalks and driveway, and I’ll pay you $50.

Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food or a new house.”

She thought that over for a few seconds ’cause she’s only 6.

And while her Mom glared at me, she looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?”

And I said, “Welcome to the Republican Party.” Her folks still aren’t talking to me.

… Even children understand.

Mark's AZ Proposition Voting Guide

Arizona is one of the last states to join the union, as such we have the same Recall and Petition provisions as most states added during the populist period. Thus every election year we have several ballot initiatives to consider.

2008 is no different.

Here is Mark's guide to and recommendations for the 2008 crop.


PROP 100: Amends the State Constitution to prevent any future taxes on the transfer of real property.

Recommendation: YES
Reason: Prevents future taxes.

PROP 101: Amends the State Constitution to Prohibits laws that: restrict person's choice of private health care systems or private plans; interfere with person's or entity's right to pay directly for lawful medical services; impose a penalty or fine for choosing to obtain or decline health care coverage or for participatin in any health care system or plan.

Recommendation: YES
Reason: Helps maintain freedom of choice in choosing your health care and how you pay for it.

PROP 102: Amends the State Constitution to define marriage as between a single man and a single woman.

Recommendation: NO
Reason: The government should not be involved in sanctioning marriage, homosexual or heterosexual.

PROP 105: Amends the State Constitution to require a majority of REGISTERED voters to pass a tax increase via ballot initiative.

Recommendation: YES
Reason: Essentially requires a supermajority to pass a new tax via the initiative process. Do I have to explain this? Taxes = Bad. Harder to pass taxes = good

PROP 200: Proposal to "reform" the payday loan industry.

Recommendation: NO
Reason: The Payday Loan industry wrote this bill. Whether you think that people should have the right to make stupid decisions (and a Payday loan counts) or whether you think that the Payday Loansharks ought to be thrown in a nice active volcano somewhere, it's pretty clear that when an industry like this write their own "reform" law, it's a bad deal all around.

PROP 201: So called "Homeowners Bill of Rights" This would mandate a 10 year warranty on new construction and outlaw any method of redress except for a legal tort.

Recommendation: NO
Reason: This is a dream proposition for the unions and the lawyers, and an open door to abusive lawsuits. If you want a 10 year warranty on a new house, that is what the purchase contract is for, write it into the contract, not state law.

PROP 202: Changes State Law regarding the Employer Sanctions law regarding hiring Illegal Aliens.

Recommendation: NO
Reason: The actual function of this initiative would actually gut the current employer sanction law, while some might see this as a good thing, it also criminolizes anyone who hires more than 4 people and fails to withhold taxes. Better hope you always higher the same babysitter, because if you ever hire more than 3 you'd be a criminal.

PROP 300: Increases the Salary of the state legislature from $24K to $30K.

Recommendation: NO
Reason: The legislature currently makes $240/day. Remember it is a 100-day part time legislature. They also get perdiem. Thus their real remuneration is more than the official $24K.
Bottom line, pay them too much and we get a fulltime legislature.

Win for McCain

As expected a solid win for McCain in tonight's debate.

Obama repeatedly stumbled, talked about safe storage of nuclear "energy" when he meant nuclear waste. McCain came out and called for reprocessing of nuclear material, (which has been banned by executive order by Carter), and clearly showed that he was better on energy policy.

McCain also directly answered more questions (if that maters), especially the penultimate question on if he would assist Israel if they where attacked by Iran before we got UN "sanction". Obama never answered that one at all.

Points to Obama for looking calm and collected. Negative points for coming off as too cerebral. Carter was brilliant, and cerebral, and possibly the worst president of all time.

Negative points to McCain for thinking that anthropogenic global warming is real. However, since Obama also thinks it's real, it's a wash.

Bleah...

VP vs. VP

Palin looked good. Solid responses, looked and acted like Sarah, which is clearly what she needed to do. Stayed on message, which was essentially, "I'm not an East Coast Liberal; I'm one of you." For a couple breaf flashes she sounded very Reagan Like.

Biden did not put his foot in his mouth. For Biden this is a huge accomplishment. Frankly, Biden looked far more presidential than Obama did the other night.

Any chance we can re-do this election cycle and have a Palin-McCain and Biden-Obama race instead.

Marks 4 point plan.

I'm sending the following to Sens. Kyl and McCain. Also Flake if I can get through.

Here is my 4 point plan to get us out of the financial mess that we currently find ourselves in. Although the roots of the crisis can be found in the Clinton administration pressuring Freddy and Fanny into underwriting sub-prime debt, now is not the time for shrill fingerpointing, but the time to actually fix things.

The main points are the same as Dave Ramsey's 3 point plan, with some very minor modification. I actually don't like the 1st point, but I think it's necessary to unwind the consolidated dept instruments, and insurance is far preferable to outright purchase by the government.

-----

Dear Senator Kyl,

I am writing to express my extreme displeasure with the current "bailout" or "rescue" package. The fact is that as conservatives we must recognize that the desire to do something in the face of crisis inevitably leads to the cure being worse than the disease.

FDR's meddling in the market did not cure the Great Depression, rather it caused it to last 10 years longer than necessary. This package (over 400 pages as I write this) is the wrong response, and will make the problem worse, not better.

We can solve this credit and liquidity problem with four straightforward steps.

I. INSURANCE

A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.

B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:

1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.
a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.
b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while
working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.

2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.

C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.

II. MARK TO MARKET

A. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.

B. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.

III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX

A. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.

B. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down. This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to
stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

C. Long term we need to abolish the tax on dividends. Taxing dividends encourages the market to artificially inflate stock prices at the expense of dividends which causes long term instability.

IV. Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley

Sarbanes-Oxley results in millions of dollars in compliance costs for any business wanting to go public. It has done nothing to avert this crisis, but has done plenty to prevent growth in the economy by stifling business growth.